A method of this kind is known from Examined German Patent Application DE-AS No. 21 22 798. Upon shutoff of the feed, the grinding wheels are locked in their respective positions and the workpiece is sparked out. By repeating these steps at the same or a reduced feed, the workpiece is ground down to a final dimension.
It is known to pre-grind the workpiece in such a way that identical dimensions are produced on both sides with respect to the set-point position of the faces. This pre-grinding (also described in the above-noted patent application, column 3, line 26) is effected at identical feed speeds but with different grinding allowances, and hence for different durations. Accordingly, it is possible that one wheel may still be grinding while the other is no longer grinding since the surface has already been ground down. This makes it impossible to prevent elastic deformation. The further machining is done incrementally by the stop-and-go method, each time with the sparking out taking place in between. However, this does not preclude recoiling of the elastically deformed surfaces produced in the first machining step, so that certain inaccuracies cannot be avoided. Furthermore, repeated stopping and sparking out is time-consuming and does not prevent dissimilar pressing forces from occurring on both sides over the short term at the resumption of the feed. These dissimilar forces can lead to elastic deformation of the workpiece, which once the pressing force is withdrawn can cause recoiling to the initial state and hence can cause inaccuracies.